In the field of distribution and transmission systems—particularly for municipal utility infrastructures such as mainline, connection, drain, pressure district, pressure regulating and pressure sustaining valves—a significant recurring problem is lack of identification or poor identification of the different types and sizes of valves in multi valve systems.
For example, the lack of delineation between transmission, distribution, clockwise and counterclockwise operating valves, water, wastewater, and two tier municipal infrastructures results in increased probability of human error, resulting in increased risk to employees, public safety, infrastructure and the environment. The lack of proper identification also results in increased time to resolution of problems in an emergency, elevating costs of mitigation due to failures.
Existing solutions to identification of valves in multi valve systems are limited in their accuracy (e.g. GIS or GPS based location systems), or may be subject to failure due to inherent design limitations.
What is needed is an improved apparatus and method for visual identification of valves which overcomes at least some of the drawbacks and limitations as described above.